When the Rotterdam Theatre announced the programme for the year (2001) that the city would be European Capital of Culture, director Jan Zoet hosted it at Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. In the ongoing 010-020 struggle, quite a statement. Zoet knew that the national press sat in the capital and was rarely willing to look outside the city limits. He also knew that...
The public version of the advisory 'Access to culture; towards a new system in 2029' has won a gold International Creative Media Award. This award, in the "Visual Storytelling, Alternative Storytelling" category, recognises the creative and accessible presentation of the opinion, which focuses on the ideas of arts and culture for all. The award is presented by the International Editorial-Design &...
In a survey on aggression and harassment towards authors by Ipsos I&O commissioned by WritersSafe, 14% of authors said they had experienced one or more incidents in the past year. Half of these have even experienced multiple incidents. The majority faced verbal aggression (12%). Authors face by far the most verbal...
"LKCA only partially meets the first condition: providing insight into the activities to be undertaken for the 2025-2028 grant period. The requested planning and budget are missing. The addendum gives a picture of which activities will be divested, but only partly clarifies how these activities will be secured elsewhere and how the acquired knowledge will be safeguarded." The...
The meeting room in the attic of the building on Brouwersgracht began to fill. Prior to the meeting, Director Geert Dales of the Fonds Beeldende Kunst, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst (BKVB) retreated with the chairman of the Fund Council. He wanted clarity on the role of that Fund Council by now. Where did the representatives of...
The VAT increase on culture and sports is off the table (VAT increase on culture, media and sports off the table: coalition struck deal with opposition). However happy everyone is, and however holy the cabinet's promise sounds: that message is only half true. During the parliamentary debate on the Schoof?Wilders tax plan, the rather intransigent and laconic minister Heinen...
Today (9:00 - 10:00), representatives of a broad alliance of organisations from culture, sports, events, media, books and accommodation will hand out an embarrassing receipt to members of parliament. These confrontational financial figures show what every Dutch person will soon pay extra if the VAT increase goes through. "This bill will soon literally hang over the head of every Dutchman," the alliance warns. The...
OCW Minister Eppo Bruins hopes citizens will buy more books, read more newspapers and go to the theatre more often thanks to the extra spending power hidden in the tax plans of the Schoof?Wilders Cabinet. This would offset the negative effects of the intensely 'ugly' VAT increase on vulnerable culture. During the Legislative Consultation OCW budget, Culture section, held on Monday,...
"Strengthening earning capacity is a necessary condition to improve the labour market position of workers in the sector. Martin Verboom is happy to share what came out of the evaluation of the Cultural and Creative Sector Labour Market Agenda in this area. Platform ACCT is forging a coalition with partners in the sector to take up the priorities for the coming years." This was why...
After a morning debate in the Lower House, Cabinet Schoof's tactics are clear. At least, when it comes to the controversial plan to selectively increase VAT on culture. In response to all questions from the House about why, Finance Minister Eelco Heinen replied that it should not be about details, but a "total package". Therefore, he wants...
On Thursday 7 November, a spin-off campaign from the cultural sector will be launched: Don't Tax My Audience. In this campaign, we ask creators, artists, performers, and everyone working in the cultural and creative sector to tell us why they do not want to burden their audiences with 21% VAT. In a promo video, Huub Stapel, Sanne Wallis de Vries, Jeangu Macrooy and Gijs Scholten van Aschat call on everyone to...
This morning, the Boekman Foundation announced the shortlist for the Boekman Dissertation Prize. After a careful procedure, three dissertation writers have now been selected from the longlist of nine dissertations that have a chance of winning the prestigious prize that will be awarded for the sixth time. The winner will be announced in April 2025 during the Culture as Problem Solver conference, in cooperation with theErasmus University Rotterdam...
Supreme court rules: renovation to start The Council of State has given the City of Amsterdam the green light on appeal to renovate the main location of the Amsterdam Museum on Kalverstraat. The Amsterdam Museum will have more and much better space for collection and public, become more sustainable and fully accessible. The renovation, which is due to this ruling by the Council of...
I remember it well, it was during a meeting of the magazine industry, sometime in 2012 or 2013. A grave mood hung in the Amsterdam debate centre De Balie, because the circulation and turnover figures of the major magazine publishers (plural at the time) had just been announced. The downward trend that had started years back had nothing to do with the crisis, but...
Amsterdam, 8 October 2024 - The "Don't let the curtain fall" campaign has successfully collected more than 30,500 expressions of support from loyal audiences. The initiative was launched by 59 members of the NAPK (Dutch Association for Performing Arts), which are in danger of closing down due to the lack of multi-year subsidies. Campaign results The signatures were presented on 8 October to the culture spokespersons of...
It was with a certain scepticism, I must confess, that I began Winny Sorgdrager's book "Oxygen of Society. Why Culture is a Government Issue".1 I won't elaborate; let's just say that a book about Dutch cultural policy has been published before. More than once, in fact, and in those books...
This year's Netherlands Film Festival conference for industry professionals emphasises collaboration, transparency and trust. With contributions ranging from a presentation of the Ketentafel Film en AV to a plea for more creative friction.
It was a remarkable report, this morning. According to newspaper Tubantia, the new cabinet was still willing to make extra money available for regional museums in Twente. It would be a sum of 1.5 million euros, earmarked to set up a joint presentation of Twente's history by De Museumfabriek in Enschede and Techniekmuseum Oyfo in Hengelo. According to...
Winfred Voordendag will take over the business directorship ad interim from outgoing director Bernadette Stokvis from 1 November 2024. Winfred has worked as business director or director in the arts sector for 25 years and is looking forward to starting work at Maas. Cobi van Beek, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Maas theatre and dance, on the...
The Netherlands is returning 288 objects from the National Collection at the request of Indonesia. During the colonial period, these objects, of cultural significance for Indonesia, were wrongfully taken to the Netherlands. Minister Eppo Bruins (OCW) has decided on the return. In doing so, he is following advice from the Colonial Collections Committee chaired by Lilian Gonçalves-Ho Kang You. The works are located...
There are finer ways to wake up than with the finance minister. This Eelco Heinen was speaking to the Radio 1 News on Wednesday 18 September, and he really felt like it. Cheerful, perky, and full of good cheer, he told how they were going to energetically implement VVD policies in the Schoof Cabinet. And then followed the next...
The cultural sector can breathe a sigh of relief. Apart from the damning increase in VAT on everything beautiful and fragile from 9 to 21 per cent, the Basic Cultural Infrastructure (BIS) has been secured for the next four years. With inclement winds coming from the corner of PVV, VVD and BBB, this can be called a windfall. There is even a modest increase coming,...
Decisions Cultural Basic Infrastructure 2025-202817 September 2024 | 15:39 Bruins adopts the Council for Culture's advice to grant 117 applications, from a total of 115 institutions, for the Cultural Basic Infrastructure (bis). At 13 institutions, the council gave a conditionally positive advice. Those institutions must meet the required conditions by 1 November 2024. The national cultural funds jointly honour 306...
- 20-metre-long 'receipt for society' rolled out on Budget Day- many experts and experience experts present including Splinter Chabot and Marit Bouwmeester. A broad alliance of organisations from culture, sports, events, media, books and accommodation will campaign against the VAT increase on 17 September. Two venues affected by the VAT increase, on and near the Royal procession, will be...
Thirty-five euros an hour for a space that can just fit a piano or a drum kit. That is the rent charged by the municipality of Utrecht to music teachers who wanted to continue their practice on Utrecht's Domplein after their cooperative went bankrupt. For many of the teachers who thus became victims of their board's mismanagement, that means a cost increase
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